Live Nation admits to placing tickets directly on resale market

A senior executive of Live Nation has admitted to placing tickets on resale sites for Metallica's 2017 WorldWired North American stadium tour, Billboard reports.

Recorded in a secret phonecall between a Live Nation executive, a Live Nation business partner and an anonymous promoter, the senior executive made the admission that tickets could be sold on resale sites above face value.

During the phonecall, the Live Nation executive states that Ticketmaster, Live Nation’s ticketing affiliate, “will not do it” and that a Live Nation employee would have to "sell them into a singular account". Once the tickets are placed into a singular account, they can then be resold.

In a statement from a spokesperson, Live Nation said: “Live Nation does not have a practice of placing tickets on the secondary market. Our standard practice is to use Ticketmaster’s Platinum, VIP and other tools to help tours price closer to true market value. In this situation, a consultant for the band opted to use the secondary market to try to capture that value."

The spokesperson also stated that "[Live Nation] does not distribute tickets on any platform without an artist's explicit approval."

Metallica have since released a statement explaining they were unaware of the practice, as a "ticketing consultant" had been employed to deal with the sale of tour tickets.